FRESHMEN: WHAT HOMECOMING?

Freshman Erin Holt, left, kept track of how points were scored during a recent volleyball match.

Editor's note: This is another in a continuing series of stories which follow the progress of two freshmen -- Erin Holt and Brad Botsch -- from Bernie as they make their way through their first year at Southeast Missouri State University.

Bernie freshmen Erin Holt and Bradley Botsch won't be in the stands cheering Southeast on today during the first Homecoming game of their college careers.

Holt will be with the Otahkians volleyball team in Kansas City, Botsch will be fishing at Lake Wappapello. Neither is chagrined about missing the event.

"I go to football games to see people," Holt says, "but I can't say I understand it."

Bernie High School is too small to field a football team.

Botsch's absence is no mystery. He has driven his Chevy pickup home to Bernie every weekend since the start of school. At home he goes fishing, sees his mother Myra and younger sister Stephanie, and his girlfriend Tracy Silliman.

"I enjoy being here at college but I look forward to going home," he says. "I go fishing and do something outdoors."

Though he plays for the Baptist Student Union's intramural flag football team, the upcoming deer season, duck season and a bass tournament at Lake Wappapello are more interesting to him than watching football games.

But Botsch was in the stands Tuesday along with a number of people who drove up from Bernie to watch the Otahkian volleyball team play Arkansas State University at Houck Field House. The attraction was a chance to see former Bernie player Amy Johnson, a starter for ASU, play against her old teammate, Holt.

Both were stars on Bernie volleyball teams that won three straight state championships.

For the first time this season, Holt got to spend more time on the court than she did on the bench keeping statistics. "That was the first major game I got to play in," she says. "I guess I did all right because I stayed in."

The Otahkians came back to win a thriller in five sets.

Nearly two months into their first year of college, neither Holt nor Botsch has encountered anything that would make them question their decision to go to college at Southeast. Holt's main complaint is a lack of sleep.

Nine of the 12 volleyball players live at Myers Hall, so they often stay up late talking to each other.

"When I was in high school I was always in bed at 10 o'clock," Holt says. "Now I'm lucky if I'm bed by 1.

"But now I can get ready (in the morning) in 15 minutes."

Botsch and his roommate-best friend Jason Crow live in Towers West. A third roommate, sophomore Keith Crawford, already has moved out. Botsch said Crawford had a very different schedule from theirs and moved in with people who keep more compatible hours.

For entertainment, they go to the Recreation Center or to Wal-Mart to stock up on beef jerky, peanuts and fruit snacks. Their Play Station attracts others on floor to their room to play video games.

Botsch has discovered that he needs to learn how to budget his time better; to study instead of socialize when study is called for.

Currently he's searching for a topic for his English composition term paper. When he woke up one morning this week he wrote down the words "yellow journalism." The kind of journalism that turned Richard's Jewel's life upside down after the Olympic bombing in Atlanta may be his topic.

"Some people think the media are here to help people, some people don't," he says.

A political conservative, Botsch expects college to be a broadening experience. "You have to be open-minded on a college campus," he says. But someone has irked him by writing "God is dead" on the sidewalk around Towers. "I can't be open-minded about that," he says.

An interest in criminal justice led Botsch to join the Citizens Police Academy sponsored by the Cape Girardeau Police Department. After their eight-week training period, the volunteers will help ease the police's workload by answering phones, fingerprinting and performing other duties.

Watching a hands-on demonstration of a felony drug bust is the way he likes to spend a Tuesday night.

Holt already has a favorite class, creative and critical thinking taught by philosophy professor Dr. Bambi Robinson. She has joined the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and says most of the friends she's made play athletics for Southeast. Her roommate, Kandie Candelarie, is a volleyball player.

When the Southeast Otahkians lost to Murray State last week for their first conference loss after 34 straight victories, Holt said she felt sad. Everyone changed clothes in silence and left.

"I'm not used to that," she said. "Coming from Bernie, you don't lose."

But Holt doesn't know how many games the Otahkians have won and lost this season. "I don't get caught in wins and losses," she says. "You lose everything else. You can't dwell on losses."

She has only gone home to Bernie once since school started. It was a weekend her parents were up in Cape. "I went because I just wanted to " she said. "I just wanted to go home for the night."

She saw some people she used to hang out with in high school. "I had a good time, but they're talking about stuff you don't know," she says. "You don't know what's going on. It's like you lost something."

Holt still didn't go to bed until 1:30 a.m.

"Six hours (of sleep) is plenty to live on," she says.